In this lesson, you will investigate how the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia was presented to the public and how censorship shaped what people were allowed to know. You will compare real evidence with censored reporting to see how information can be controlled and rewritten.
Exercise 1
Research online information on the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. Analyse the video and photographs from the invasion.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odzXZbPsWxI
- https://www.stafo.eu/galeria/Fotogal%C3%A9rie/Ko%C5%A1ice-1968/
Answer the following questions:
1) What preceded this invasion?
2) Why was it necessary for the USSR to take such drastic measures?
3) How do you think people felt about tanks and soldiers invading a sovereign country?
4) Can you recall any other instances of the USSR stopping a ‘rebellion’ violently?
Exercise 2
Read the instructions issued by the censor office on how to write about the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (Attachment 1).
Next look at the article written in 2023 (Attachment 2) and censor it according to the instructions.
Answer the following questions:
1) What are the main problems according to the instructions?
2) What is left of the article?
3) Imagine you are a citizen who saw the invasion with your own eyes and now are reading a censored newspaper article. What would your response/reaction be?
Exercise 3
Divide into two groups, with each group preparing uncensored reports on the Soviet invasion in 1968 (or, for example, 1956, or another important event in the Cold War). The groups then pass the reports to each other, and each group must censor the other group’s report and return it to the original group.
Possible home assignment: Students would complete the report as homework. At school, they would be paired with someone else, and they would have to censor each other’s work.
Attachments